Every spring, I am amazed at how much growth my students make. Year after year, it's the same. It's like they've been little sponges all year soaking in the knowledge until they're full. At this point every year, they begin pouring out their knowledge and growing leaps and bounds. I look forward to sharing this growth with you at conferences next week. You should be very proud of your child. Read the updates below to find out what we've been learning and working on in the different subject areas.

MathProblem solving has been a big focus of ours in math. We have read our problems in a different way. Instead of reading problems with numbers, the word "some" is thrown into the problem. This strategy is called "Notice and Wonder". Without the numbers, students are really able to focus on what is going on in the problem. After students discuss what they notice and wonder about the problem, I fill in numbers. It's been amazing to see how many students now understand when they add or subtract. Instead of just automatically adding the numbers together, students have THOUGHT about the problem and understand which operation makes sense. I know this is pretty difficult to envision, so I have included a video so you can get an idea of how this works. I honestly had to see it for myself before implementing on my own, so I had my friend Mrs. Smith (another kindergarten teacher) show us. This was their first time working with a problem without numbers, and their discomfort shows. Since this video was recorded, they have grown more and more comfortable with this approach. I have seen so much growth since applying this strategy! Below are some pictures and a video of this approach.

In addition to problem solving, my students have worked a lot with fluency. Not only is fluency important in reading; it is also important in math. By the end of the year, students are expected to be able to add and subtract fluently within 5. With the use of games, math sprints, and number bonds, the majority of my students are already fluent within 5. More than any other year, I have been blown away at my students' ability to add and subtract quickly! Here is a video of one of our math sprints. Students are given only 96 seconds to complete the addition and subtraction problems. There are 20 problems on each page, so it requires students to answer the problems very quickly in order to finish. If they miss zero or one problem, they get to move on to the next sheet, which is a little more complex than the sheet before. We will keep working on fact fluency the rest of the year.

WritingIn writing, my students are currently publishing their final opinion writing pieces. They have learned how to share their opinion in three ways: through posters, letters, and books. They are currently working on books and will share a published opinion book with you at conferences.

We have worked a lot on revising and editing. Students have learned that revising means to add, take out, or change words so they SOUND better. My students have gotten pretty good at rereading their writing to see if it makes sense. Now, they have been adding words to make it sound even better or to be even more convincing. They have used checklists to help them do this. They have also been able to share every day with their writing partner. Their partner helps to go through the checklist to see if the writer needs to add or change anything. I've included a video of my students sharing with their partners. I was so impressed with the things they encouraged their partner to revise.

My students have also learned that editing means to change their writing to make it LOOK better, or easier to read. They can do this by focusing on making sure their writing includes spaces between words, punctuation at the end of their sentences, correctly spelled sight words, and capital letters in the correct places. To help with the editing process, my students have been given an editing stick (which is a Popsicle stick with colorful dots on the ends for each of those four editing components).

Below is a picture of our editing sticks. You can easily make one at home to help your child with the editing process. Even though they are just sticks, they really hep my students edit their writing to make their writing easier to read.

ReadingMy students have taken off with their reading! They have come so far with their fluency, accuracy, comprehension, and vocabulary. I would say fluency and accuracy have come the furthest. My students have been practicing sight word phrases in guided reading, which has helped them put words together quickly. They have also learned that punctuation changes and enhances our voice when we're reading. My students understand that when they see quotation marks, they are supposed to make their reading sound like the character talking. I look forward to applying our fluency skills when we begin to practice the class play for graduation. It should be a lot of fun!

A student from Mrs. Hahn's room, Darrian's sister Daileah, has chosen to come read to our class as a reward. It's been so fun to have her come in and model some fluent reading. Below is a video of DaiLeah reading The Foot Book. My students have been inspired by her fluency skills, as she is very animated as she reads. Many have incorporated this into their own reading. It's been fun to see and hear!

As far as accuracy goes, my students have gotten so much better at cross-checking. My students have learned to ask these three questions when they come to a word they're not sure is accurate: Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? This cross-checking strategy has definitely improved my students' accuracy. If you get a chance, have your child show you the actions we have put to this strategy. It's pretty cute!!

Although this was several weeks ago now, I can't help but share. For one of our PBIS rewards, my students chose to have a flashlight party. The party included doing our readers' and writers' workshop in the dark with only our flashlights. Being realistic, I didn't think it would be a very productive day of learning. The funny thing is, they were even MORE ENGAGED than usual. I've included a few videos from that day. To end our flashlight day, we had a dance party as well. It was truly a fun experience!

Science We have been learning so much about weather. Students have learned about different types of weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy, partly sunny/cloudy, snowy, and windy). They have also learned that weather is constantly changing and that it affects what we do and how we dress. We have had to learn the hard way this winter and some days this spring that when the temperature is below 10 degrees, it's too cold to go outside. We have become "weather watchers' and have begun recording in a weather journal what the weather is like on random days. I look forward to doing some experiments related to weather.

We have also learned about "Claims and Evidence". Once again, Mrs. Smith came in to model how to use this language during science. From this lesson, students learned that scientists make claims about the things and the world around them. In order to make a claim more substantial, people should provide evidence to support their thinking. I've included this lesson in the two videos below. We have continued to use this language during our lessons related to weather.

All in all, it has been so fun to watch my students take off the last month or so. As I said earlier, they have learned so much all year long, but they have just sprinted full speed ahead lately. I look forward to seeing how they do on their spring testing coming up in the next few weeks. I am sure they will continue to blow me away. Thanks for everything you do to support your child at home. It is very clear they have such caring, supportive families.